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Williams: Wallerstedt has work cut out for him in year two

Matt Wallerstedt beat us to the punch Saturday afternoon, lobbing out a question of his own even before the first one was put to him.

“Anybody have any tackling drills for us?” the Texas Tech defensive coordinator asked as he stepped into a circle of media after the spring game.

The Red Raiders missed some Saturday. When they did, more than once, it turned into a big play. That was especially true early as quarterback Davis Webb led the offense to a 27-point first quarter and a 34-point first half in a game it won 37-30.

A couple of examples: Late first quarter, Webb connected with Jakeem Grant along the home sideline, and cornerback Justis Nelson had the angle on Grant to shove him out of bounds.

Except he missed, and off Grant went to a 75-yard touchdown.

“During warmups, I was telling him, ‘I’m going to make a big play on you today,’” Grant said. “And he was like, ‘No, you’re not.’ I saw that he slowed up. He actually thought I was going to run out of bounds, but I used my speed to get around him.”

Two series later, DeAndre Washington went 28 yards up the middle, most of that yardage again after a missed tackle. The offense scored two plays later, capping a 75-yard drive that took three plays.

Generally speaking, the advice from here is never to make too much of a spring game. There’s not the October urgency. Coaches are mixing and matching personnel. Texas Tech defensive coaches aren’t scheming for the Texas Tech offense. And besides. Maybe we come away with an altogether different perspective if we were able to watch those dozen workouts that weren’t open.

I’ll stand by that.

But it’s apparent Wallerstedt has his work cut out for him more so this year than last year. The Red Raiders didn’t play great defense in 2013, especially late in the season, and now they’re trying to replace nearly all the best players on that unit.

The senior departures affect every level: Dartwan Bush, Kerry Hyder and Dennell Wesley up front; Terrance Bullitt and Will Smith at linebacker; Tre Porter and Bruce Jones in the secondary.

So what if Tech trotted out the 84th-ranked defense in 2013. Wouldn’t you take back most of those guys in a heartbeat?

This summer and fall, Wallerstedt, Mike Smith and company will be trying to do their fastest fix-up job. Picture men along the coast boarding up windows before the hurricane rolls in.

There was only so much Wallerstedt and his staff could do this spring. They’re counting on junior-college defensive linemen Rika Levi, Marcus Smith, Brandon Thorpe and Keland McElrath to provide a quick fix for the defensive line, though only McElrath was here this spring.

The Red Raiders’ hit rate on those four needs to be high. On the newcomers’ end, the rate of absorption must be swift, or else.

In the meantime, the level of play this spring was about what you’d expect. Returnees such as inside linebacker Micah Awe and safety Keenon Ward showed the willingness to hit people, which sets a tone.

On the other hand, in three open scrimmages, Webb completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 959 yards, no interceptions and 13 touchdowns.

If nothing else, the Red Raiders need to be a tackling-sound bunch and, as mentioned above, they weren’t necessarily that.

“I do think at times we did tackle in the box pretty good,” Wallerstedt said of Saturday’s game. “I still think the perimeter play and the third-level play could be better.”

Tech fans have been receptive to Wallerstedt and sympathetic to the chore he faces. Outside the locker room, he’s accountable. A firm-handshake, look-you-in-the-eye guy, he oozes leadership. He knows how to win friends with the fan base, referring to his former employer Texas A&M as “that school down south.”

More important, inside the locker room, he knows how to push the right buttons, able to demand a lot from his players without turning them off.

As defensive tackle Jackson Richards said the other day, “He’s a real energy guy. He’s fun to play for. He’s a guy that’s real easy to trust for a lot of reasons. There’s that term, ‘run through a brick wall for a guy.’ And all of us would do that if you told us to.”

I’m not sure Wallerstedt has played that particular card yet, but it might cross his mind sometime next season.